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RootMetrics Ranks Verizon “Overwhelming” Leader in the US for Performance

RootMetrics pushed out the first of their 2014 semi-annual performance reports for the wireless industry late last night, showing Verizon as the overall winner once again. The report looks at five areas (data performance, call performance, text performance, reliability, and speed), four of which Verizon topped the charts on, including the overall category.

We included the scores below, which show a small lead for Verizon over AT&T, but in the end, when you win and take four of the five major categories, you get bragging rights. In a breakdown by state, Verizon took 48 states in overall performance, 44 states for reliability, 45 states for speed, 46 states for data performance, and 44 states for call performance. The only category that Verizon did not top was text performance, which AT&T claimed the title for.

T-Mobile edged Sprint in three of the five categories, including overall, for third place. They did, however, take last in reliability.

What is RootMetrics? To take a quote from their own site, RootMetrics says that they “distill thousands of independent, consumer-focused tests into RootScores that let you compare the networks at a glance and make more informed mobile decisions. It’s simple: the higher the RootScore, the better the performance.” They are made up of a team of professional testers and a “consumer-first focus.”

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I’ve used this app and noticed that when reporting Verizon’s signal strength it was reporting only the 3g CDMA signal strength. Doesn’t seem this is very accurate as most people have more issues with data speed than with voice service

Jaden

Verizon has a very small lead, with ~5% or less in every category, I wouldn’t call that overwhelming.

socalrailroader

Nice, but it looks like they didn’t test outside of larger cities, and they completely skipped Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Alaska, Vermont and Maine.

Maverick_F14

I agree Verizon is king and is there for the long haul. AT&T will always be trailing BIG RED!

Now lets get to the far more interesting results of this and that’s Sprint & tmobile.

Yes Sir it all comes down to the 2 smaller wireless mobile carriers. Now it’s neck and neck and clearly one is not the best over the other so as it is it all comes down to location when taking into consideration coverage and performance. I’ve known first hand people who have the worst coverage with either of these two networks and vice versa so that just says RELIABILITY is crucial when it comes down to it.

Sprint and tmobile are the carriers to keep an eye on for now and the foreseeable future. These two will dictate how the other two will change it’s strategy if needed as time passes. However for now they’re no direct major threat to the big two no matter how undercut in price wars the smaller two go head to head, it’s nothing more than scraps to Verizon and AT&T. A ripple in the pond yes shaking the industry but make no mistake it’s trivial at best. It hasn’t changed it only made small waves in a larger body of water. Sprint and tmobile are like guppies compared to the real sharks of Verizon and AT&T, simply no contest. Why, it’s clear isn’t it by now. They don’t have SCALE!!

In conclusion time will tell and the fight goes on between Sprint vs tmobile and Verizon vs AT&T. As it stands now the gap is HUGE between the actual MAJOR wireless carriers in BIG RED and BIG BLUE and the not so major in the Yellow & black attack and the pink carrier. So it takes time and SIGNIFICANT money and red tape to build out it’s network and in years to come down the road we’ll revisit these test and see just how far Sprint and tmobile have expanded coverage and who will overtake the other in the long run.

My moneys on Sprint simply because they now have two great leadership in it’s mist. Softbank’s Masayoshi son and Sprint’s new CEO Marcelo Claure vs it’s previous regime. With these two power houses it now has the capabilities to take Sprint further and far more effective than ever before. Both have proven to be great leaders and successful business entrepreneurs in their portfolio. Sprint now and it’s future is looking bright!

ndog21

Verizon must pay off Root Metrics their network is horrible in Los Angeles. Their X-LTE is a gimmic since it drops off after a walking a block away from a towet, since they use crap panels for AWS/X-LTE, and i constantly struggle to load webpages and stream music on their network. Meanwhile AT&T, and T-Mobile are faster and more relaible here.

I went from a GNex on VZ to a Nexus 5 on ST (T-Mobile’s network) and my LTE speeds now are far better on T-Mo than they were on VZ. I’m happy with T-Mo’s network and as long as they keep expanding the LTE footprint I see no reason that my opinion would change.

Timothy Anderson

I would say “Underwhelming” when you consider the price. You pay a lot more and get only slightly better performance. You also get Verizon’s unlimited BS. I switched from them and never looked back. Actually, in my area, T-Mo is faster as well.

drathos

I stopped finding it amusing when I was struggling to get a VZW signal of any kind in downtown DC (usually just 1 or 2 bars of 3G, not LTE), within view of the big “4G LTE” posters on the Phone Booth (a/k/a Verizon Center). This was middle of the work day, not during an event.

Since I switched to T-Mobile, I’m getting a better signal downtown than I did on VZW except inside some buildings that seem to block nearly every wireless signal (didn’t get a VZW signal in them, either). Signal at home is off and on, but it was the same with VZW. I just seem to live and a wireless black hole (can’t pick up DTV signals either).

It’s funny that AT&T has almost the exact same pricing as Verizon, has worse coverage, and consistently does very poorly in customer service polls yet gets almost zero hate on these boards, esp compared to Verizon.

mots

Worse? Source?

Also, this site was originally targeted towards Verizon users so there are more of them. Plus people often hate on their own provider until an “outsider” does the same thing then they go on the defensive.

Disqus_n00b

Dealing with Verizon is not worth 83% reliability vs 82% on AT&T GoPhone

Scott

This further solidified for me why I’m making the jump from Verizon to AT&T once my contract is up. 1) More family members and friends are on AT&T. 2) I’m going save about $60/month and still have 10 gigs to use. 3) Their coverage is a step above T-Mobile (I travel around the country to much).

Jim Davis

Consider Cricket if you’re willing to buy a phone for full price when you switch. It uses AT&T’s network, but is much cheaper than GoPhone. I’ve been with them since January and have nothing negative to say about the service.

cancerous_it

It’s fashionable on this site to rag on Verizon but there’s a reason they are the most expensive. The majority of you have no idea of the billions (with a B) in capital it takes to build out a network like Verizon’s. If you travel, there simply is no substitute to Verizon. Yes TMobile is less expensive but their footprint and reliability doesn’t even come close to touching Verizon’s. It will take TMobile $20+ billion and another 5 years to remotely match Verizon’s network.

Like with most things in life, you get what you pay for. If TMobile works for you, great.

hoosiercub88

I mean… this should come as no surprise at all really.

Scott

They didn’t factor in Baltimore, MD. Verizon’s network here has more holes than Swiss Cheese and the roads.

hoosiercub88

They did actually, and thousands of other cities *facepalm* just because you fail to grasp the whole, doesn’t mean it’s not truth.

hoosiercub88

As an added tidbit, I have a few friends in Baltimore with VZW and they’re quite happy, especially having switched from Sprint.

Dusty

Coming from Sprint, they would be happy with just about any other carrier. All i have to say is Verizon’s coverage in MD varies tremendously now, not just in Baltimore. It is almost like T-Mobiles where the more highly dense areas you get 40Mbps or higher but as soon as you leave those areas you get 1-5Mbps. Hence why I’ve been planning to move to T-mobile. My coverage with VZW is no better than T-mobile, i mind as well switch and save myself $50/month.

hoosiercub88

And for those in a great or acceptable coverage area with T-Mo, that’s a smart thing to do. Which is definitely not everyone for sure.

Dusty

Yep, definitely agree with you. T-Mo isn’t for everyone. However, its frustrating to see people not even take advantage of T-mobile’s test drive program to even compare their coverage with their own to see which is better. I know a lot of people who still jump to the conclusion that T-Mo is bad coverage and the network is horrible without ever trying them out…

hoosiercub88

I’m unable to do so.. there isn’t a brick and mortar T-Mo store within 50 miles of me.. and there’s a very good reason for it. It’s all EDGE and GPRS.

Dusty

=/

skinja

A lot of that might be coming from the actual phone. A motorola or HTC always seems to have better signal performance than a samsung.

Scott

I actually have a Moto X and a Samsung Galaxy Nexus prior to that. What I found was that my GNex would sometimes completely lose the signal in these areas. My Moto X just tends to drop to 3G or hangs between 4G/3G, going back and forth.

Victor Who

As both a VZW and T-Mo subscriber, I can say that (without question) VZW has the better network by a lot.

monkeybutts

What phone are you using on T-mo? Some are clearly better than others for reception. Nexus 5 for example is a great phone but data drops with it on T-mobile are significantly greater than other phones. iPhone which are the test drive model are also lower quality reception wise than the other flagships.

bisayan

DL has failed to mention that verizon and att has drop significantly thier points over year to year comparison 🙂

hoosiercub88

I don’t think they’ve failed to mention anything, that information isn’t really pertinent to this article. While it may be true, due to the onset of more and more subscriber’s, having the best is still having the best. Despite archaic policy and anti-user actions.

ThomasMoneyhon

The problem is this seems false. What are we calling performance these days? Because the LTE network provided by Verizon initially performed terribly. That’s why they built XLTE. Att never needed to ‘fix’ its LTE network because they made a good one in the first place. Also att LTE and 3G (LOL) is consistently faster in most parts of the country than Verizon. So is Root Metrics trying to redefine what performance means?

hoosiercub88

As always.. YMMV.. I guarantee though.. more people with Verizon have more reliable faster data than people with AT&T, which is reflected here. It’s not about specific sites or cities.. it’s about the network as a whole. There are places where Verizon doesn’t work and other carriers shine, and there are places where ONLY Verizon works, and nobody else is worth a darn.

Alexander Garcia

There should be an “@$$holes Index” as well. Verizon would surely rank #1 in being complete @$$holes to their customers.

schlanz

The results speak for themselves. Complain about vzw all you want, in the end they are the best plain and simple. for people who rely on their cell for business, reliability is #1 priority.

213ninja

some DL posts would just be better off with the comments disabled……such as anything related to verizon or samsung……….

Rodeojones000

Don’t you know that it’s against Droid Life policy to post pro Verizon articles?

I kid.

The above results are exactly why I choose to stick with Verizon. There’s a reason “You get what you pay for” is a saying.

John Motschenbacher

Too bad there isn’t a cost index. They would have failed.

hoosiercub88

Well to be frankly honest.. if they did a cost index of the US.. then a cost index with the largest carriers from around the world.. all of the big four in the US would have failed.

Ajmcnicol

I love how people bitch one way or the other….

Fact is not a single comment on any of these sites makes one person change their mind one way or the other.
If you hate verizon, no pro verizon comments about coverage will make you like them…
if you like them, no anti comment will make u leave them..

Its funny when people get butt hurt and super defensive to comments, and replies and re-replies. YOU are on the carrier YOU signed up for cause it make sense for YOU. Like everyone else. Move on…,

PoisonApple31

And as usual heartfelt comments such as yours will do nothing to sway the butt hurting…but they do entertain me.

s0uth

verizon grandfathered unlimited ftw!

Lonepalm

What they don’t measure however, is truly one of the more important factors for me….customer service and appreciation. I don’t think it is possible to rank lower than Verizon in any of those two. That’s why I jumped to T-Mobile. I knew/know the data/coverage isn’t quite as good, but I appreciate their Un-Carrier stuff. Publicity stunt or not, it is about time some common sense made it to the wireless world.

Chad

It’s also pretty interesting that much of you LOVE the idea of leaving a service where it scores, literally objectively higher in almost every category for something of lesser quality. Why? To save $30/month? I am legitimately curious. Its like saying “My Mercedes fast, reliable, and can cover me everywhere I go, But i’m so excited to switch to a Chevy and save %20, even though its not as good, not as reliable, and i’m good with coverage as long as i’m in *current major metro area*

sirmipsalot

Nice analogy. Tell me, who sells more cars – Chevy or Mercedes? Yes, exactly. It’s a value tradeoff. Some people actually are excited about saving $360 per year (your math). You can make a different choice, and that’s fine. Enjoy.

Chad

Well, bringing in volume kind of messes up the analogy since Verizon > Sprint or T-Mobile where Chevy > M.B.

I guess what I’m more confused with is why would a group of enthusiasts (i’m guessing most people reading DL or commenting on the articles are tech/android enthusiasts) would want something inferior within their own enthusiast environment. Like a photographer getting rid of the superior camera for the inferior one because of some marginal price difference, a car enthusiast wanting an inferior car, etc.

sirmipsalot

Define “inferior”. Again, it’s a value judgement. Performance? Performance where? Device availability? Device flexibility? And money is not infinite, even among enthusiasts. People on this site – enthusiasts – quibble about price points of phones *all the time*. Yes, it makes perfect sense for a camera enthusiast to ditch a superior-spec’d camera that only works with lenses from that same manufacturer, and all of those lenses suck. That would make perfect sense.

jimt

My Honda Insight gets better mpg than any gas using car, I could have bought a “Better/more expensive” car. But no thanks.

ThomasMoneyhon

Its inferior for me to have to wait for updates and get a device that is bootloader locked. I can not bring my own device to CDMA. No nexus.

Jim Davis

I, for one, don’t like the way Verizon treats its customers and sent them the only meaningful signal I can– I switched to Cricket.

Now, I still have great coverage, fast enough speeds, and a bill that’s $35 cheaper/month. That’s enough to buy a new nexus phone every year if I want (assuming the price stays about the same.)

flosserelli

Just like real estate, it’s all about location. I will gladly trade Verizon’s costly “superior” service for T-Mobile (which is actually better in most areas that I frequent). I am fully aware that VZW coverage is better nationally, but for folks that live in a T-Mobile sevice area, the choice is brain-dead simple.

jimt

I’m saving $100 a month.

ThomasMoneyhon

Also some people don’t travel and the other carriers actually work fine Because you don’t leave their smaller footprint. Some people also want more (att) for less.

hoosiercub88

That’s a bad analogy, have you ever had to repair an out of warranty Mercedes?

Chad

So the next time someone here wants to talk about why Verizon is expensive… there ya go. A “premium” price for a “premium” product.

bigdny99

There goes any chance of keeping Unlimited…ummm.. unlimited…

yummy

All payment to the King Red. Too big for a corporate takeover, too small to be the government. How temporarily inconvenient for the King Red.

NexusMan

Tell me something I DON’T know.

malcmilli

Ha T-mobile second in performance in NYC… nice.

needa

same in nashville. i just got done doing the test drive, and i can tell you flat out that i did not go with t-mobile over straighttalk at&t. not that carrier boasting matters a whole lot to me, but i do have to wonder how they come up with their scores. i never drop calls on at&t, but i did on t-mo. and only made a few calls with the iphone.

malcmilli

were you holding the phone wrong? I kid. I wasnt being sarcastic. I have tmobile in NYC and i always tell people that my service is excellence. And people just go “yeah right sure.” I get nice and fast data.

needa

i don’t doubt it. it is pretty fast here. i think the majority of the reason as to why i hated the service is due to how the iphone switches between 2g 3g 4g and lte. it was really irritating. while one day i might get on tmo… i most certainly will never consider that tedious and annoying iphone.

Aaron C

I’m in the metro NYC area, and in most areas I went with my old Verizon phone, their LTE was slower than T-Mobile HSPA+ when I switched. I was pretty amazed by that. I always thought Verizon was better pretty much no matter what, and couldn’t believe T-Mobile would be faster.

hoosiercub88

A large room with few people will be indefinitely cooler in the summer than a full room.

Aaron C

And a good landlord will upgrade the A/C if that happens.

Bruce

I first thought it shows which carrier has the most “rooted” devices. LOL

flosserelli

Verizon is also the overwhelming leader in price.

NexusMan

Usually “overwhelming,” quality goes hand in hand with “overwhelming,” differences in price.

Justtyn Hutcheson

Yep, I’d say they are all priced fairly relative to network performance. Would be great to see all of their prices drop en-masse, but unfortunately without any external pressure that is very unlikely to occur.

jimt

Verizon will lower its prices when or if Tmo gets a larger footprint than Verizon. I would like to think this is likely and hope it happens soon. Karma is a bitch.

Justtyn Hutcheson

Verizon will adjust their business strategy when they feel they need to, and long before T-Mobile can overtake them in coverage and in subs. T-Mobile doesn’t have nearly enough spectrum holdings to even remotely challenge Verizon’s coverage range. Heck, the Block A spectrum they just purchased was primarily to aid in building penetration in metro areas rather than actually expand their total coverage area. And refarming their EDGE to 4G LTE won’t really help with range, just speed. On top of all of that, a significant chunk of their rural service is on “partner” networks that they have no control over, either through speed or range. Their best hope is the auction next year, but it is extremely doubtful that Verizon or AT&T will let T-Mobile win and still have anything left for a meaningful deployment before they implement their own network strategies.

Karma only affects those with a soul. Verizon, as a business entity, is ruthlessly efficient at dealing with any and all threats. They didn’t get to where they are today by panicking or by making ill-conceived knee-jerk reactions. Everything they do is with an eye towards what the market currently is, and where it will be in 5-10 years. That’s not to say they are a “good” company, but they are most definitely good at what they do. T-Mobile is not some savior fighting the big evil corporations; they are a corporation who is making every possible move to stay relevant and competitive. Long-term, if they don’t greatly expand their coverage area somehow, they will begin to slide back into irrelevance. Honestly, they should have allowed themselves to be purchase by Sprint in a reverse buyout ala the MetroPCS merger, tossing the Sprint leadership aside, then used all of that delicious spectrum to actually pose a tangible threat to Verizon and AT&T’s footprint. Or maybe the threat of that happening is what kept the deal from being pursued past the initial talks.

LiterofCola

Keep dreaming

NexusMan

Exactly. I’ve always said that mobile service is overpriced on ALL carriers. But for Verizon and AT&T to lower their prices, T Mobile & Sprint would have to too, as Verizon and AT&T’s level of service is far beyond that of T Mobile and Sprint. The pricing needs to remain relative, and there is no way Verizon, with it’s “overwhelming,” lead in performance could be priced at $60/mo while T Mobile is too.

pyro74boy .

Looks like Verizon is handing out a lot of money to RootMetrics because T-mobile works much better around my local area. There is this one place where I live for like 20 miles Verizon has like one bar of service and T-mobile has full service. Please people don’t buy into this crap Verizon Sucks end of story,

Your scientific data is overwhelming!!!! I’m convinced it must be a conspiracy of lies. Even though T-Mobile has almost no coverage where I am, I’m switching today! Thank you for all the hard research you’ve put into this.

pyro74boy .

I get the fact that T-mobile is not going to work for everyone everywhere but please these reports are very miss leading because Verizon’s network is not as fast as T-mobiles data network around my local area I also get the fact that Verizon works in places where T-mobile doesn’t but in the places where it does work T-mobile works very well. Verizon lies to their customers and I have been lied to more then once. BYE BYE VERIZON I WON’T MISS YOU.

Ok, that isn’t even close to what you said. The fact is Verizon has a farther reaching and more reliable network nationwide than T-Mobile. If it works for people in specific areas, great. The fact that they can’t have consistent service the way that Verizon does is the reason they are #3. People complain about Nexus devices, customer service and price on here all the time when it comes to Verizon. You never hear coverage complaints though, that is why they are used by so many. A cheap plan with a nexus device and amazing customer service mean nothing without a usable network.

pyro74boy .

I’m not denying anything I said or how I said it so what’s your point? I’m not complaining about Nexus devices because I don’t like stock Android. I also even admitted that Verizon’s network works in places where T-mobile doesn’t but the fact still remains that T-mobile’s network in my local area is very usable more so then Verizon and I hardly ever travel outside my local area so what you’re saying does not effect me. You also failed to mention that Verizon is going to start throttling people who are still lucky enough to have unlimited data after they use 4.7GB of data starting on October 1st whenever they feel like it. So waste your time trying to sell Verizon’s network to someone else but you’re not selling me on anything you just said because I’m still on Verizon and I’m not happy. I have been lied to by more then one Verizon rep in the Verizon store and Verizon has done everything they could think of to try to get me off unlimited data including me buying a phone at full retail price and still having the nerve to tell me I still lost unlimited data anything after knowing full well that the ONLY reason why I spend the money to buy the device that I liked at full retail price was to save me from losing my unlimited data. The ONLY reason why I still have unlimited data was because I called Verizon customer care before I left the Verizon store that same day and talked to a different rep who confirmed that the in store rep had lied to me and that her computer screen was still showing that I still had unlimited data. The rep in the store was looking at the same exact account as the rep over the phone. EPIC FAIL ON VERIZON WIRELESS .

I’m sorry, but I kind of stopped reading your bitter rant after a few sentences. You started by saying that Verizon bribed someone for these results and that Verizon sucks (the implication was there about their network being inferior). Now I see that you are really complaining about a used car salesman/Verizon sales rep being dishonest. These are 2 completely different things. The sales reps are sales reps. They know nothing more than what they are told. The phone reps know a little more, but not much. Either way, enjoy being mad about it and have fun with T-Mobile.

pyro74boy .

You do know that it’s not unheard of for some of these companies to pay others to give people miss leading information right? it happens all the time and you’re a fool in you think otherwise. This is also just what I think so I was not trying to make this sound like it’s a fact but this is my opinion so learn to tell the difference. So okay if you really must go there then tell me how you would feel if you where treated the same exact way as I was? Are you even aware of what these devices are being sold for at full retail price? I spend well over $700 on my last phone so the bottom line is that if they don’t know what they’re talking about then they should not be working for that store. How can someone like you even try to justify Verizon and the way that I was treated? If someone does not know the answer to ANYTHING then they should say it rather then making up lies. I also work with customers at my job and if lied to my customers I would lose my job for sure.

The simple fact is that the only time a sales rep is being honest is when they tell you another rep is lying. There is a reason I compared reps to used car salesman they care far more about the sale than they do about being honest. At no point did I ever try to justify anything, I’m just aware that they know nothing and are willing to lie for money. If you didn’t know this, then welcome to the real world. Does it suck? Absolutely, but it is like this at just about every retail electronics store you go to. I was told 2 days ago that a Qi charger wouldn’t work for my phone because it wasn’t made by LG. This was by a Best Buy employee. Store reps are held accountable for their number of sales, not their honesty. The reason that the phone reps are held more accountable for their lies has to do with the phone calls being recorded. Try recording an in store rep and they probably won’t even talk to you.

pyro74boy .

Well sorry but to me honestly goes a very long ways and if you can’t be honest with me then I’m going to report the rep to their boss or whoever it is they report to. Trust me I have run into good in store reps also so it’s not like they don’t exist as you claim and some of them have been very knowledgeable in every part of the sale. When you think about it the smarter reps should be working in the stores not over the phone because when you’re working with someone on a face to face level you get to react with them on a much more personal level vs someone over the phone that you can’t even see. When the reps say hello welcome to Verizon wireless how may I help you from that point on that same rep is representing Verizon as a company and me the customer expects and depends the same exact treatment regardless if it’s in person or over the phone. If that same rep does not know the answer to the question that I asked then they should say sorry I’m not sure about this let me go find out because I don’t want to give you the wrong idea. If I ever feel rushed during any sale regardless of what I’m buying I will not buy from that rep,

Honesty is always the best policy, but it doesn’t mean that everyone else agrees. There are crap people in every industry that would stab their own mother in the back to make a buck. All you have to do is look back at the last few years and see all the people in the headlines that were ripping people off for millions of dollars. I’m sure there are knowledgeable and honest reps out there, but if you think most of them are then I know this Prince in Nigeria that needs your help.

pyro74boy .

True this world that we all live in is anything but perfect but really if these companies can’t hire honest good people to work for them then that does not say very good things for them so I’m not going to be as understand about this issue as you seem to be. A little bit of honestly gos so far with someone like me and I don’t care if it’s Verizon or T-mobile these reps need to stop these games and do their job or get out of the store and make room for someone that is honest and their to do their job the way that they where told to it in the first place. I even worked for Best Buy for a short time a few years back and we where told during our training to be honest at all times and that if we did not know the answer to anything that we where to use are two way radios and ask for help.

NexusMan

Where I am, my speeds are MORE than double T Mobile’s.

jimt

Come to the Bay area of California and try to say that. Its location location people.

NexusMan

Of course it’s location. And according to this post, Verizon takes the top spot in 48 out of 50 locations.

PoisonApple31

In Wisconsin, T-Mobile is crap. On the Wisconsin report by RootMetrics, Sprint scored 10 points higher than T-Mobile in Overall Performance! This is my reality – that’s why I can’t understand those who buy into T-Mobile.

It is garbage here, so I can’t compare it to a State where it actually is decent.

pyro74boy .

Well I don’t live in Wisconsin, So what you just said does not apply to me. I don’t even think I have ever been anywhere near there. Maybe a long time ago.

NexusMan

Don’t know how you’re 1 experience equals Verizon sucking and paying off RootMetricks. Verizon is BY FAR the best carrier in my area and those I know on T Mobile, REGULARLY complain about dropped calls, MUCH slower speeds than me, and just dropped service. Sorry, try again.

pyro74boy .

good for you do you want a cookie? I get the fact that not everyone is having the same results everywhere on all of these carriers. The fact still remains that T-mobile has much better service in my local area vs Verizon. Maybe I’m being a little hard on VZW but I don’t like being lied too.

PoisonApple31

And your local area does not apply to us.

NexusMan

LOL. I don’t want a cookie anymore than you want one for proclaiming “T-mobile works much better around my local area.” Good for you, too! My original point stands, you’re one experience does not make it a fact that “Verizon Sucks end of story.”

pyro74boy .

Verizon sucks for me end of story and NOTHING you say will change my mind.

NexusMan

LOL. What are you 12? No one cares about or is trying to change your mind. AGAIN, my original point stands, your experience doesn’t represent the experience of every mobile consumer across the 50 states of the entire US of A. And it certainly doesn’t mean Verizon is paying people off to claim they have great service…change your mind…LOL. Who cares what’s on your mind?

pyro74boy .

And when did I ever claim it did you moron? I’m allowed to voice my opinion and that’s all I have been doing and I never claimed anything I said as fact did I so stop trolling my posts and acting stupid because that’s what you doing. There was no need for you to attack me based only on the fact that you don’t agree with what I said. Obviously you cared enough to reply to my posts, LOL Really people like you make me laugh because you act like it’s a sin to have a difference of opinion. It’s my god given right to voice how I feel about Verizon Wireless and if you don’t like it then that’s just too bad. I NEVER EVER was trying to speak for ANYONE but myself and the fact remains that Verizon has sucked for me so just learn to respect the fact that we have a difference opinion and move on with your day you fool.

NexusMan

I wanted to avoid name calling, but since you went there….clearly YOU are the moron. Read your 1st post, you idiot. THAT’S when you claimed it did: “Looks like Verizon is handing out a lot of money to RootMetrics because T-mobile works much better around my local area. There is this one place where I live for like 20 miles Verizon has like one bar of service and T-mobile has full service. Please people don’t buy into this crap Verizon Sucks end of story,” Nothing contained in that quote is an “opinion,” they are allegations and assumptions. But you wouldn’t know the difference, would you? You juvenile fool.

pyro74boy .

Quote Looks like Verizon is handing out a lot of money to RootMetrics because
T-mobile works much better around my local area. There is this one place
where I live for like 20 miles Verizon has like one bar of service and
T-mobile has full service. Please people don’t buy into this crap
Verizon Sucks end of story,]

This is my opinion and I NEVER ONCE said that this was a fact. You spent all this wasted time and energy trying to call me out on something and you still failed. LOL I’m also not denying anything I said or how I said it so really you’re just making yourself look more stupid every time you reply to my post. Yeah you’re going to reply to my post asking me if I’m 12 years old and then you don’t think I’m going to reply back to you and start name calling? You have made a point to disrespect me so now I’m giving you the same treatment back. I was just being silly when I asked you if you wanted a cookie yesterday and you took it upon yourself to take it personally that’s your issue and not mine. By the way the ONLY REASON why I even posted my first comment in the first place was to voice my opinion about Verizon Wireless in the fact that these test results don’t count for every single person and yes some of these companies have paid others to give people miss leading information about them. So learn to tell the difference between someone’s opinion and a cold hard fact it’s not the same thing and unless I specifically say something is a fact then and only then is it indeed a fact. With this being said it’s a fact that Verizon has lied to me and they have poor service in my local area so just relax you IDIOT.

Ajmcnicol

Good for you..you live near a tmobile cell tower…not something that is common considering their size…

According to this they dont, so what, you get what you pay for, no one held a gun to their heads

michael arazan

National Security Agency should just make a Free carrier for every citizen and in return can spy on me all they want. And throw in a free phone every 2 years of my choice

David Ust

I just went and looked at the scores by metro area – I’m interested because I just switched from Verizon to T-Mobile to get the OnePlus One and keep unlimited data on my own plan. I live closer to NYC – basically 15 minutes from Staten Island for reference – and I work outside of Trenton, NJ. I spend probably 97% of my time somewhere in between these 2 places. Looking at the Metro scores, T-Mobile and Verizon tied for NYC and Tri-State and was tops for Philly. RootMetrics data has pretty much shown what I’ve seen in my 3+ weeks on the T-Mobile network.

I did take a trip to SC and while data/LTE worked in populated areas and voice/text worked pretty much everywhere, I could see why people would lose their minds if they didn’t live near a major metro on T-Mobile.

crazyg0od33

yeah – it’s weird.

I live in jersey (smack between Philly / NYC) so you’d think I’d have good solid LTE on my N7 (T-mo SIM), but I drop out a LOT. Which is why for phones my family sticks to VZW for the time being

Justin Kos

North Jersey here, In the month with the nexus 4 on T-Mo I experienced some outages here and there, frustrating

jimt

Nexus 4 doesn’t do LTE

Ajmcnicol

He never mentioned LTE outage

Justin Kos

Im very aware of that

Aaron C

Mine does. 😉

David Ust

I drive Rt 1 every day from New Brunswick to Ewing. The only place I’ve had any issues on my commute is one 1/2 mile (maybe) stretch near Plainsboro where I drop off LTE to H+ but it isn’t enough to mess with anything I’m doing – streaming Google Music at high quality or SiriusXM.

Bryan

Do you never take a vacation that takes you out of a major city?

David Ust

LIke I said – I just took a trip to South Carolina. Data for web browsing was basically unusable on 95 south of Richmond in VA and NC and then backroads of SC until I hit Myrtle Beach – where it worked flawlessly again. But I knew it would be that way when I switched. I still got texts/voice calls and emails on the 2G for most of the way – which was fine for me.

As far as other vacations – the only places I go outside of cities or popular beaches are music festivals like Bonnaroo in Tennessee and all cell service there is awful anyway.

monkeybutts

Awesome to see T-mobile is now officially #3 on the last report they were #4

DC_Guy

Well DUH!

Diablo81588

Completely agree.. ATT has terrible call performance..

sirmipsalot

I know everyone here loves to complain about Verizon, and their customer-hostile policies are worth it. But it would be nice if people could be a bit more mature about it. It’s not like Verizon is very secretive about this. If you really really think that the marginal reliability and performance is worth it for you, then that’s the deal. Take it or leave it. Nobody’s holding a gun to your head. (FWIW, I left it. But god, the whining about them here is insane).

flosserelli

“I know everyone here loves to complain about Verizon, and their customer-hostile policies are worth it.”

A perfect example of Stockholm syndrome.

sirmipsalot

Pithy, but incorrect. “it” in this case refers to the complaining/calling-out/commenting. Using context clues, including the rest of my comment, you’ll see that I don’t believe being a Verizon customer is worth the cost. Verizon’s customer-hostile policies are worth calling out and worth complaining about — and then doing something about it, by leaving (which I did), rather than just whining month after month and trying to find back-doors in to their policies to *stay* a customer with them. I realize that I was not as clear as I should have been.

Our definition of usability may differ. On GSM I get enough voice/ data coverage in my area that is good enough for the price. But that one time I’m driving through “X” I maybe roaming or on Edge but with Verizon it will be full coverage. Is it worth giving up the freedom of GSM and lower prices for that one time I’m in “X” …. nah.

Dan

for me it’s more driving and having zero GSM coverage, or being able to make/maintain a phone call and do emails on Verizon. and believe me i’ve tried them all, where I go Verizon is the only option that gives me full coverage, and for that i will pay their price, which in reality isn’t that horrible. Limited selection of phones sucks, but as someone else stated it isn’t my priority

jimt

Location, Location.

jimt

It makes a point to Evil Red, small point though it be. Love my Nexus 5 and the increase in speed I get and the $100 in my pocket each month.

ultravisitor

I’ll take reliability. Having a Nexus isn’t going to do me any good in an emergency if I don’t have coverage.

Roaming agreements or not, Bill paid or not … if its an emergency you will be able to call out to 911 regardless. just saying. of course if a complete dead zone which GSM does have and CDMA as well then no luck to either side.

There are many areas where CDMA 1x works but not GSM, just the nature of the best when it comes to very weak signals.

Ajmcnicol

I pay the extra to have great coverage without the sacrifice, and have every phone ive ever had with Verizon unlocked, rooted and running stock anyway

Kurt Weber

I wouldn’t mind tiered data so much if there was roll over for data, like how there used to be roll over for minutes with cingular. Its those off months where I’ll unexpectedly use more data than normal that keep me from dropping my unlimited data. Just a random thought.

jimt

i also wonder what would happen if everyone actually used what data they pay for in a month, it would bring the carriers to their knees.

Justtyn Hutcheson

Not likely. Concurrent usage is what generally screws with carriers, as bandwidth is their primary limitation. Hence why at, say, SDCC, or DCon in Atlanta, or any major sporting event, you may as well just give up trying to get a data signal, because simply too many people are trying to access the network over a very short period of time.
The data caps control bandwidth by encouraging users to be off the mobile data network as much as possible, or face real-life consequences. At each tower, the equipment simply does the best it can to manage the number of connection requests it receives.
That’s why T-Mobile can offer unlimited data; they have enough bandwidth per-user to not worry about congestion, so they don’t care if people are on their network 24/7. Verizon, on the other hand, has an incredibly congested network in some areas, so they have to encourage as many people as possible to stay off the network. Their size is, at once, their greatest advantage and disadvantage.

monkeybutts

Why is AT&T better at text performance?

Justin Kos

No clue haha, I had verizon and atnt and t-mobile and vzw/atnt are nearly the same

jimt

Money changing hands at Verizon?

Justin Kos

Doesnt matter, my straight talk 45 a month with atnt sim card does everything I need, I dont need 50 mbps when my pandora plays the same on both for half the price

Nathan Borup

Keeping Customers Happy Perfomance: 0

Mike

I’m mostly happy with them, bump that up to 0.00000001

Nathan Borup

You must be blind, or heavily subsidized by a corporation… I don’t know of anyone happy with Verizon

BillySuede

i’m fine with them. that’s why you don’t speak in absolutes.

Nathan Borup

That’s why I say you must be blind. Verizon is almost as bad as Comcast… and no one likes Comcast

BillySuede

mmhmmm… keep telling yourself that.

jimt

I’ll take Comcast over Verizon, any day. I do as a matter of fact.

schoat333

Well I would hope so. They charge more than any other carrier for services, and lock everything down. Of course they are going to perform at the top. Let see a survey of how many people think paying that much is worth it, and having limited choices is worth it.

It was not for me.

Godzilla

actually if you look at ATT and Verizon their prices are the same for most things

Nathan Borup

The thing about Verizon is they screw customers by locking down their phones and no nexus devices

socarwolverine

Meh, your average person does not know or care about any of that.

Nathan Borup

But the rest of us who do care about that are screwed by verizon. Luckily I was able to get my moto X bootloader unlocked anyway

socarwolverine

I agree, but unfortunately, our numbers are few.

schoat333

I can take my nexus or unlocked GSM devices to AT&T tho.

Justin Kos

more importantly you can take your unlocked gsm device to a prepaid atnt service

monkeybutts

Deciding factor for a lot of people is employer discount %

jasenm

Ive been with Verizon for about 15 years. Three months on the TMO early termination deal then right back to Verizon. I’m sorry but I’ve never felt like Verizon was “screwing” me.

Godzilla

i am not ready to go that far, verizon can be a super douche about things.

yankeesusa

That’s good that you feel that way. The sad state is that most on verizon feel the same way even though its mostly not true and because their coverage is so good there’s nothing anyone can do.

Mike

After testing out T-Mobile and Sprint, I can very firmly say that Verizon is the best bet (At least where I live and commute). Sprint was going to cost me around $90 a month and I think T-Mobile was $85 neither of which had data where I needed it (Most notably my job which is located IN Pittsburgh). I pay $115 on Verizon which get’s me 10 GB of data. I will easily pay $20 to $25 a month more to get a reliable and consistent data connection. What’s the point in having unlimited if you can’t even use it since you are always on WiFi?

You get what you pay for.

yankeesusa

That is a great example of what many on verizon go through. Unless you don’t travel and live in an area with great tmobile or sprint coverage your only real choice is verizon.

Justin Kos

we here at DL like to exaggerate things

Aaron C

If you never felt like Verizon was “screwing” you, you haven’t read your bill well enough every month.

Godzilla

I will say this, let’s see what these results are in say 2016 when T mo has refarmed almost all of its network

Lunkman

Um, sure. But UNTIL then and IF it happens, I’ll gladly pay more for Verizon.

Godzilla

What do you mean IF it happens, its happening now, they’ve been working on it non stop

Lunkman

By “if” I mean if their service is as good as Verizon’ in 2016.

Justin Kos

Ill never gladly pay more for anything, prepaid is the way to go, straight talk atnt

mcdonsco

And get throttled after 3gb? No thanks. If it were truly uimited and no throttling, I’d be on it in a heart beat.

Fooer

Verizon is not gonna sit idly by though

Godzilla

sure, like i said, let’s see how it goes

Justin Kos

Lets say T-mobile has a full roll out of LTe and vzw has XLTE or w.e. you want to call it. How much speed do you really need? Lets be honest, if i got google fiber today, what really takes full advantage of the network speed that will be useful in my life?

I realize its about future proofing and blah blah blah, and Im never opposed to seeing new tech… but I’d rather pay less for something that just gets the job done than something I wont take full advantage of

crazyg0od33

well, to be fair – with google fiber you’d still be paying basically the same price or less (in my case if fiber hit my area) than current ISPs and you’d get the extreme performance enhancements.

So when everything costs basically the same, I’d take the extra future-proofing.

Same goes for cell carriers. Unless Tmo can get WAY down below verizon to make it worthwhile to switch (for me personally), I’ll take the future proofing any day

Justin Kos

Alright you got me there lol, to hell with everyone else if its the same price haha.

I def see T-Mo undercutting the competition rather then competing head to head like vzw and atnt do

RGibs

There’s more to it as well. If you’re a family, it’s pretty common to have several devices sharing the network. So you have 4-5 streams of Netflix or what-have-you pulling data. Trying getting HD on all those streams.. that’s another reason fiber is important. Everything we do is moving to cloud/streaming format, and so is everyone’s devices, even our children’s devices.

BroRob

Don’t forget UHD streaming is right around the corner. I believe Netflix has just enabled it. Not sure in the difference of bandwidth required, but resolution is 4x HD.

michael arazan

I’m the only one using netflix in my household and never get any tv or movies on Netflix in HD ever, through Verizon or my home wifi.

Mots

Well, Verizon isn’t doing much. Their “overwhelming” lead is actually pretty slim, looking at those graphs.

socarwolverine

That’s great, but you also have to take into account, VZW isn’t likely to sit still and let Tmo catch up.

Last time I tried t-mobile was with the nexus 4, and they covered my area in LTE at the time, I just couldnt pick it up. I had a poor experience with the carrier and my phone didnt have their WiFi calling feature =( I want to try it again with the nexus 5 and see if it helps

T4rd

Yeah, the Nexus 4 didn’t (officially) support LTE or WiFi calling though. The Nexus 5 doesn’t support WiFi calling either on T-Mobile, FYI.

Justin Kos

Its a really cool feature, I wish nexus devices could have it

T4rd

The issue is that since it’s a Nexus, its software comes straight from Google, not the carrier (TMo), so TMo can’t support WiFi calling on it. And if TMo did handle the updates on it, then it wouldn’t be a (true) Nexus since you’d be waiting on the carrier to modify the stock ROM in order to support WiFi calling.

Justin Kos

Yea, its a double edged sword. Im not app programmer but wouldn’t it be possible to install an App to handle that functionality ?

T4rd

Some XDA devs may have hacked WiFi calling into the Nexus ROM somehow, I know I’ve seen them (try to at least) do it on other phones/ROMs, but it seems like a difficult feature to integrate properly into the ROM from what I’ve read.

ThomasMoneyhon

Its done though the Kernel. So you need Kernel level support + the requisite apps.

Justin Kos

That answers my question then

monkeybutts

Nexus 5 has pretty bad reception compared to most phones on T-mobile. Wait for the 6.

Justin Kos

Im going to pass, I see no need to upgrade as long as I can play clash of clans and have android L im good. =D

jimt

The Nexus 5 doesn’t do wifi calling unless you use skype or equivalent on Tmo.

calum wilper

I don’t believe the nexus 4 had LTE radios? Edit: totally just realized that’s exactly what you meant, my bad

matt

Nexus 5 doesn’t have their WiFi calling. It has to be a branded T-Mobile phone you but from them. It sucks cuz I prefer to buy my phone unlocked from Google and because of that I can’t get Wi-Fi calling or the cell hotspot for my house

monkeybutts

Or when they actually have access to sub 1 GHz spectrum. Hopefully all the phones coming out for the rest of this year have access to the 700 MHz A block.

What if you want data in a building with no wifi? Honestly that’s something I care about a lot more than wifi calling.

ki11ak3nn

I care about that too. I’m just saying wifi calling is a nice backup. My friends with AT&T have to stand by a window or go outside to make a call. I can be in the lunchroom and call and text just fine.

T-Mobile’s “refarms” are why I became an AT&T customer after almost 10 years with TMO.

Big EZ

I really hope they make huge improvements to their network so that most of us aren’t beholden to Verizon anymore.

ThomasMoneyhon

And T-Mobile either goes broke as a joke doing that or doesn’t actually follow through since they don’t have the extra money to do that.

michael arazan

Dish could still make a play for t_mo in the future. They said they were jumping in the carrier game even though nothing but them buying up spectrum is the only thing they’ve done public. They said they wanted to have stores up by the end of 2013 and nothing has been said since last year

2016 VZW will have 5G and you still be dreaming with 4G LTE lol Droid Life readers are the funniest they all write like they know about tech just because they read this site every second, every minute ever hour ever day….. LMAO

michael arazan

Verizon said they don’t plan on rolling out 5G till at least 2020 or after

Jason B

Yep. Verizon has an edge now because they’re combining bands 4/1700MHz AWS and 13/upper 700MHz C-block with MIMO. So, of course you get faster speeds.

Well, T-Mobile will eventually have bands 4 and 12 in a MIMO setup too, plus VoLTE in metro areas.

Verizon has a TON of work ahead of it to get rid of its antiquated CDMA network. It’s going to cost them billions to refarm those old CDMA towers too. They’ll keep pushing their VoLTE plans further into the future.

Diablo81588

Keep dreaming. It’ll be the same crappy network that it has always been.

In 2016 Verizon will have XLTE MAXX Ultra. Since the LTE race started, Verizon has been in the lead.

Maverick_F14

Two more years…..it took over two years to get to where tmobile is now and now your saying wait another 2 YEARS!

JimmyHACK

What I take from the metrics is they are all pretty close.

Buur

Not too many people will question their network and coverage. Their morals and ethics however…

Rodeojones000

Because other carriers are squeaky clean, morally speaking?

Aaron C

Not necessarily, just a little more “open” about their charges and fees.

yankeesusa

This is just about right. Overall verizon may not be the fastest anywhere but it’s reliable. If you can afford them or need them because you travel then that’s the company to choose. Att is good too but their lte isn’t all over the place, but hspa can be just as good.

Michael Sahaid

I have Sprint. I feel so bad now.

Bryan Mills

They’re the worst carrier.

Godzilla

so thankful they are no longer buying T mo

jimt

Wish Tmo would buy Sprint.

Justin Kos

If it works in your area who cares? but I still agree, they do suck

PoisonApple31

T-Mobile isn’t that far ahead of Sprint.

Godzilla

I travel the country a lot and I could have told you the same thing. Its the one reason I stay on verizon.

jasenm

Exactly this

zurginator

Interesting. I travel a lot too (mostly highway and rural) and in my experience AT&T kills Verizon when it comes to data coverage and call dropping.

ki11ak3nn

I’m looking into getting a Cricket pre-paid SIM for when I travel. Just to test out AT&T. But for the most part T-Mobile has me covered in the city.

zurginator

Yeah tmobile is great in cities on the east coast… Wish I could have stayed with them.

Diablo81588

Dude ATT is the king of dropped calls…

zurginator

My trainer had 2-3 dropped calls a day with Verizon. I’ve never had 1 except for a call with him.

Diablo81588

His phone was defective. I never drop calls on Verizon. I’ve been with them for 10 years and been all over the country. Everyone I talk to on ATT cuts out and drops calls like crazy.

AT&T was better, but since Verizon rolled out XLTE in most major cities, they are definitely the king again. AT&T are getting single digit and lower speeds on LTE in cities like NYC, Boston, etc.

zurginator

Yeah they aren’t the best in data speed, but I’ve been to quite a few places where I’m the only guy with data.

Bob’s Bilderbergers

They do perform the best at screwing their customers! Congrats!

yankeesusa

That is true. But the reason they do is because there are no other choices.

Bob’s Bilderbergers

Oh I completely agree. They have the best coverage by far! It’s just sad that they take advantage of their customers because of it

T4rd

It can be argued that you get what you pay for. It’s just a matter of if you “need” the coverage/speeds or not.

Bob’s Bilderbergers

I agree. But living in the Midwest, this is about the only viable option as far as decent coverage goes.

T4rd

You can use Verizon MNVOs though to help save a bit (at the expense of service in some cases).

Nathan Borup

MNVOs? What are those?

Gr8Ray

Google not working for you? Took me 2 seconds to get the answer. But I’m not sharing.

monkeybutts

Still no LTE, Page plus said it’s coming soon but who knows when that is.

LiterofCola

Go to another network then.

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